ILLUMINATI: A NEW WORLD ORDER (Author Interview)

Illuminati looks like an interesting historical book. Can you tell us a little about it?

This eight part series chronicles the rise of America and the small cluster of businessmen who helped turn the country into the world’s leading superpower, while at the same time making themselves extraordinarily wealthy. Starting in 1865 and culminating at the end of World War II, the story moves from one historical event to the next with a heavily-researched, fictional narrative woven in-between. It is an alternative take on the past, rewriting what has been written before, and connecting dots of evidence that have been previously overlooked.

To put this series into context, one of the characters goes on to create the world’s first billion dollar corporation. Another sells his company for $900 million, the years thereafter making $59 million in dividends. Both these events occurred over one hundred years ago when the average wage was barely $1 a day. If you were to capitalise those figures purely for inflation, these men would each be worth $34 billion today. However, both went on to invest in the majority of the 20th Century’s greatest advancements, as well as running their own banks and funding the allies during the war. Therefore if you were to capitalise their wealth with a mere 5% return on top, these two families sit with over $2 trillion each.

This is why the story needs to be told, for it is the greatest story of our modern times.

What will readers get out of your book?

One of our readers who left a review on Amazon said: 'It made me want to study American history' which is also part of the tale. While the story is highly controversial and puts forward theories about how the world is run, ultimately it is a Historical Fiction Novel and if it gets people taking a greater interest in America's great past then that is only a good thing. It's like a rampage through all of the things you were taught in school but brought to life through an interconnecting story of what may have happened behind the scenes.

Why should the reader buy the book? - for 7 days from Wednesday 8 April the book will be price dropped to $0.99 on the Amazon Kindle store. That's less than the price of a beer and currently you can’t even go out to buy that beer so might as well stay in and read this book!

What inspired you when writing Illuminati?

All sorts of things have inspired me and over a period of many years. At university studying Sociology I read the texts of Joseph Stiglitz and in particular, ‘Globalization and its Discontents’. That sparked an interest in world politics and since then many other influences have added to that search for knowledge. Watching the events of 9/11, the war on terror and the financial crash of 2008 and wanting to know how and why these events occurred, also led me down a path of exploration. Films such as Bowling for Columbine, The Big Short and even The Great Gatsby seemed to pull me further into sitting down and actually writing the story slowly forming in my head. I believed that there was some link between everything, if only I researched deep enough, and far back enough, to connect all the dots. And I knew that if I did, I would come up with a common sense explanation of how we got to the position we find ourselves in the world we live in today.

When did you decide to become a writer?

This book started over 4 years ago when I wrote the first 3 chapters, which took two months to complete. Having exhausted myself to get even 3 chapters, I stared at the gigantic task ahead – and quit. It just seemed impossible that I would ever have the time to research and write the entire book, let alone a full series of 8 novels. Then, my wife had a baby… and everything changed. I realized that if I didn’t commit myself to completing the series, whether it became successful or not, that I would be a failure. And so, every night since that day I have gone to work for my usual 8 hours, and then burned the midnight oil until 2 in the morning in order to get the job done.

When writing Illuminati did anything stand out as particularly challenging?

The book has taken over 3 years to research and write, everything from the buildings in New York, to the way people dressed, to the businesses that were open and what people ate at the time - this story is enriched with great detail to transport the reader to another time and place. Sometimes a simple looking paragraph may have taken several hours to research and pen; scrolling back through newspaper articles, historical accounts and photographic archives to ensure the story remains true to the time.

What do you like to do when not writing?

When I am not working and not writing I dedicate the rest of my time to my family. Sleeping is the thing that has gone out of the window, but I guess that in a day containing only 24 hours – something had to give!!